Part 4: Healing our 11 year old dog's torn ACL / CCL without surgery

Our following 'Zero' -- our 11 year old highly athletic 60 pound German Shepherd following a CCL ACL tear where the vet recommended TPLO surgery but we attempted a non surgical treatment approach (dog acl recovery without surgery) entered its 8th week. (See the beginnings: How we tried to heal our 11 year old German Shepherd Dog's torn ACL / CCL without surgery part 1: Week's 1-4.) At this point we're going to start some physical therapy. Last week on day 44 we did a 15 minute walk to end the week knowing the weekend was going to be rainy and she'd be resting.

That's when we came up with another trick. She doesn't really like the chondroitin and glucosamine powders on her food (as you wouldn't). And she'd avoid them as best she could with her morning meals. And then we though about the fact that she (like Lexy before her) likes the Udo's Choice Pet Essentials we put on her lunch. So we put the chon and gluco on her food and covered them with the Udo's choice. Result, at least day 1, was -- all got gobbled up. Cool.

Day 51 - 15 minute 3/4 walk around the block.

Day 52 - Here's a good lesson. Don't push it. Just telling ourselves two days ago that we weren't going to push it as exercises were looming in a few days and...we pushed it. On the 2nd consecutive day of 15 minute walks she really dragged the last 3 minutes. So, we're going to have to do something like -- if you do a 15 minute walk don't do many exercises. And if you do many exercises don't do the longer walk that day. And you might want to take a day or two off the day after exercise or longer walks.Day 53 - Already pegged as an almost complete rest day - we see the negative results of too much too soon. Audible popping from the knee crossing the street for the bathroom. ROM exercise brought about crepitus / meniscus play -- clear popping noise on extension and flexion. And a sick feeling in our guts. Icing her down. Rule of thumb is if a meniscus is at play but there is no pain or limp because of it - keep up with the joint supplements. Now we need to watch this really closely. Thank god for TiggerPoz. Upsetting because just 8 days ago we had noted that the click / pop in the knee during ROM had disappeared.

Day 54 - Videos below.

Part 1:

Part 2 contains a clear audible crepitus / knee pop click from the knee at the 5 second mark:

Video 3 is range of motion exercises from early on the morning of day 54:

Of course we're now going to add a few more supplements. Ordered Dr. Mercola Joint Support. It'll add a bit more CMO and MSM along with egg shell membrane and low density Hyaluronic Acid and collagen. Also ordered Hyalogic Hyaluronic Acid for dog joints. That includes a bit more MSM and N-Acetyl Glucosamine. NAG is thought to increase the availability of oral HA to the joint. In the same order we picked up some Sweet Sunnah Black Seed oil as a pure anti-inflammatory. Not going to use it right away but this way we can have it on hand.

Oy. It's at this point where it is again, research time. We turn to horses with torn ACLs and, guess what? This is how they do it with horses. No surgery due to the weight bearing aspect of a horse's knees. They do what we're calling the conservative approach with dogs. And when they get to the point where they're doing some walking they hit a number, say 10 minutes, and do it for TWO WEEKS before adding, say, another 5 minutes the next week. Torn Horse Tendon: The Long Road Back from This Equine Injury is a very good read right about now.

Day 55 we did 3 sit stands. Day 56, yep week 8 anniversary, we did an across the street 8 minute walk. 3 hours later we did 5 or so 'sit stands.' Video below.

We're going to stick with the 8 minute walk for a few days slowly looking to extend that. We'll do the sit stands every other day. Increasing slowly number and number of times. We're now icing once a day after either the sit stands or the longer walk. Heating to loosen before exercise or the longer walk whenever possible. Goal now is to lengthen the walk again and ... see if we can clear that popping sound out again. Also, more supplement research.